Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) eBook

Under the olive-tree she sat down beside him, and
told him all that had happened in Ithaca while he
was away, and all that he must do to win back his
kingdom and his Queen.

THE ARGONAUTS

ADAPTED BY MARY MACGREGOR

I

HOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES

Now I have a tale to tell of heroes who sailed away
into a distant land, to win themselves renown for
ever in the adventures of the Golden Fleece.

And what was the Golden Fleece?

It was the fleece of the wondrous ram who bore a boy
called Phrixus and a girl called Helle across the
sea; and the old Greeks said that it hung nailed to
a beech-tree in the War-god’s wood.

For when a famine came upon the land, their cruel
stepmother wished to kill Phrixus and Helle, that
her own children might reign.

She said Phrixus and Helle must be sacrificed on an
altar, to turn away the anger of the gods, who sent
the famine.

So the poor children were brought to the altar, and
the priest stood ready with his knife, when out of
the clouds came the Golden Ram, and took them on his
back and vanished.

And the ram carried the two children far away, over
land and sea, till at a narrow strait Helle fell off
into the sea, and those narrow straits are called
“Hellespont” after her, and they bear that
name until this day.

Then the ram flew on with Phrixus to the northeast,
across the sea which we call the Black Sea, and at
last he stopped at Colchis, on the steep sea-coast.

And Phrixus married the King’s daughter there,
and offered the ram in sacrifice, and then it was
that the ram’s fleece was nailed to a beech
in the wood of the War-god.

After a while Phrixus died, but his spirit had no
rest, for he was buried far from his native land and
the pleasant hills of Hellas.

So he came in dreams to the heroes of his country,
and called sadly by their beds, “Come and set
my spirit free, that I may go home to my fathers and
to my kinsfolk.”

And they asked, “How shall we set your spirit
free?”

“You must sail over the sea to Colchis, and
bring home the Golden Fleece. Then my spirit
will come back with it, and I shall sleep with my
fathers and have rest.”

He came thus, and called to them often, but when they
woke they looked at each other and said, “Who
dare sail to Colchis or bring home the Golden Fleece?”

And in all the country none was brave enough to try,
for the man and the time were not come.

Now Phrixus had a cousin called AEson, who was King
in Iolcos by the sea. And a fierce and lawless
stepbrother drove AEson out of Iolcos by the sea,
and took the kingdom to himself and ruled over it.

When AEson was driven out, he went sadly away out
of the town, leading his little son by the hand.
And he said to himself, “I must hide the child
in the mountains, or my stepbrother will surely kill
him because he is the heir.”